


fire blazing

by yhighon



Series: hybrid au babey [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Arsonist Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Blood and Violence, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Hybrids, Identity Issues, POV Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Realistic Minecraft, dream goes feral a little bit but its ok, sapnap freaks out, they work it out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:02:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28445841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yhighon/pseuds/yhighon
Summary: There’s a kid on the other side, not much younger than Dream himself, lighting the house on fire using a flint and steel.“Eat the rich.” Kid cracks with a shit-eating grin, and Dream decides he is not going to feel bad for killing him. The flint and steel in his hands will be useful, if nothing else.(Dream makes a friend and has an identity crisis, not necessarily in that order.)
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: hybrid au babey [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077488
Comments: 13
Kudos: 168





	fire blazing

**Author's Note:**

> ok so for peeps following this au this is before the other fic. idk felt like i should say smth about chronological order, bc this is not

He’s standing outside, bored on protection detail for his current boss, when he sees it. Smoke, rising from the other side of the roof. Fire? He moves towards the other side, sword held in hand, suddenly glad his current boss had been kind enough to provide a weapon. 

There’s a kid on the other side, not much younger than Dream himself, lighting the house on fire using a flint and steel. The kid doesn’t seem to notice Dream watching him yet, preoccupied with setting more of the building on fire.

“What are you doing?” Dream said, startling the other boy. The kid pulls out a small knife, laughable compared to the sword in Dream’s hands.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Comes the retort, Kid holding the knife out in front of him.

“Come on, man, don’t do that.” Dream says, annoyed. This job was supposed to be easy money, and it would be if he didn’t have to deal with this. There hadn’t been any incidents all day, just the occasional need to look threatening as people passed by.

Now this dumb kid was here, setting things on fire like a pyromaniac.

“Eat the rich.” Kid cracks with a shit-eating grin, and Dream decides he is not going to feel bad for killing him. The flint and steel in his hands will be useful, if nothing else.

“Yeah, yeah, eat the rich, but you couldn’t burn down any other house?” Dream says, putting out the fire carefully. Kid looks disappointed, but eventually the fire gets put out. “Go burn an admin’s house, they’re the rich.” 

“Admins are too powerful. I won’t get away with it.” Kid pouts, and Dream rolls his eyes before hitting him with the sword. “Hey!”

“You’re not gonna get away with it here either.” Dream says, hitting him again. It’s gonna take a few good hits before Kid dies, it’s only a stone sword, but it works well enough, and Kid is scrambling backwards, knife held out in front of him.

“Who’s gonna stop me?” He asks, made a redundant question as Dream kills him. He picks through his stuff, pocketing food and the flint and steel, and he turns back to where he was standing, outside the building as the people inside argue over resources, or something. Dream isn’t listening. 

The building is just a little singed (and it wasn’t the best looking beforehand), so they don’t notice the new burn marks when they emerge, and Dream doesn’t mention it, instead trailing along behind them on the path.

Once they get to their destination they toss Dream his money and he’s on his way, eating some of the food that he’d gotten from Kid. It’s just bread, but it’s more than Dream has had in two days, and it’s more than enough.

He’s walking away from the middle of town, towards his own house, to maybe get some sleep or just be out of the main part of town, when he spots Kid again, this time holding something away from a shopkeeper, over a fire. 

They make eye contact for a brief moment, and the kid fucking winks at him before turning back to the shopkeeper, saying something that Dream can’t hear.

He keeps moving, trying to get out of the large crowd that’s gathered, but apparently Kid has gotten whatever he’s threatening for, because Dream hears running footsteps before he’s next to him. Dream doesn’t have the sword anymore, now that the job is over, but he holds a knife, and he’ll actually use it, unlike the other boy, who seems content with fire and bluster.

“I’m Sapnap.” Kid- Sapnap says. 

“Cool.” Dream says, turning around a corner. Sapnap keeps following him. Dream swallows the urge to kill him again.

“What’s your name?” He asks, and Dream dips down an alleyway, expecting Sapnap to follow him. The idiot does, and now they’re in enclosed brick, away from prying eyes.

“None of your business.” Dream says, holding the knife out in front of him. Sapnap finally seems to become aware of his surroundings as he backs up, getting maybe a foot of distance between them before hitting the brick.

“Come on man, I don’t have anything. You took all my stuff.” Sapnap says, holding his hands out in front of him. 

“You had another flint and steel. You were using it to threaten that vendor.” Dream says, and Sapnap actually looks- scared? That doesn’t make sense.

If he wasn’t scared when Dream pulled a knife on him, why would he be now?

“That’s all I have.” Sapnap says. “Come on, you took my last one, you don’t even need it.” 

“I could just kill you and take all your stuff.” Dream says, and Sapnap forces out a laugh like he’s kidding, but Dream considers it. He holds the knife, years of having to bullshit his way through robberies and jobs alike making him threatening.

“Please don’t.” He isn’t begging, not quite, but his voice cracks at the end. 

Dream doesn’t get it. Dying isn’t supposed to be something bad, not when everyone just respawns anyways. Sapnap’s already respawned at least once today, from Dream himself killing him. People usually don’t want to die so they don’t lose their items, but if he’s to be believed, then Sapnap doesn’t have anything.

Spawn is dangerous, but obviously that isn’t the issue, considering Sapnap has obviously made it out of there before.

“At least tell me your name.” Sapnap says, and it’s not what Dream was expecting him to say at all. 

“Dream. Now leave me alone.” He leaves him standing in the alleyway, pocketing his knife and going home.

He makes sure that Sapnap isn’t following him, but there isn’t any sign of the pyromaniac.

Eventually the mountain comes into his line of sight, and he makes it to the alcove, blocking himself in and sitting on the bed. 

The alcove isn’t very big. It’s tiny, dug out one night after running from skeletons. It’s just enough for him to fit a bed and a box for some of his things, things he doesn’t carry around for fear of them getting stolen. 

Some extra clothes, a little bit of food (mostly stolen from Sapnap), another knife. He turns over the flint and steel in his hands, leaving the iron part to sit on the bed while he turns the flint over in his hands, the smooth rock with jagged edges.

He puts it in the box along with the iron piece and falls asleep, listening to the rain fall on the stone outside the alcove.

A few days pass without work, and Dream eats the last of the stolen food, before he finally finds a job. It isn’t great, just a supply run for an admin. He hates working with the admins, (they’re the ones with all the power and they know it) but he needs the money.

It’s a relatively quick job, nothing easy but enough money for him to take it anyways. It’s a simple supply run to get more blaze rods, and Dream’s partner is of almost no assistance, nearly getting hit by the fire more than once.

“Watch out!” Dream barks, and the guy barely misses getting a singed arm, holding up his shield.

“Thanks.” Guy, whose name Dream is supposed to know but doesn’t really care to remember, says. He brushes off his pants and sighs. “I thought they had hybrids for this.” 

“Huh?” Dream hasn’t heard of people using hybrids for actual purposes other than to sneer at and spit on. “What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you heard? It’s all anyone ever talks about anymore. The admins have started coding in more hybrids to make supplies easier to find. Blazes, creepers, whatever you can think of. It’s actually kind of interesting, if you can get past how fucked up they turn out sometimes.” Guy explains.

“Fucked up?” Dream asks, dreading the answer.

“Yeah, a lot of them don’t live very long, from what I’ve heard. Messed up respawn, weird anatomy. They should use those ones to put on a horror show or something.” Guy laughs, and Dream is suddenly nauseous.

“That’s messed up.” He croaks out, but thankfully Guy doesn’t seem to notice his discomfort, instead blocking another blaze shot, taking it down and collecting the rods. 

Dream stands still for a moment. Artificial hybrids? Is that him? He remembers bits and pieces, memories that have resurfaced here and there, but most of it is gone from his memory, locked up somewhere he can’t reach.

He doesn’t know where he came from, if his hybrid nature is from a drunk idiot on a bet or artificially created by the admins for farming purposes. He doesn’t know which is worse.

He remembers someone from a long time ago, whose face is blurred, covered by static. Was that an admin? Or a rare kind stranger, hard to find among the people that frequented the server?

“Yeah, maybe. Not like anyone’s gonna stop them, they’re the admins.” Guy laughs. “Come on, we almost have enough.”

Dream snaps back into the present, taking down two blazes at once, and they wait for more to spawn. There are few spawners left, many of them destroyed by griefers, but there are a few that the admins have blocked off with obsidian, only available to the admins and whoever they deem trustworthy enough to send to go collect supplies.

“I think we have enough.” Dream says, looking over the blaze rods in his hands, careful not to damage them.

He’d made the mistake of doing that before, making them useless, so he didn’t have enough. The admins had locked him in the Nether, forcing him to die in order to get out.

Guy nods. “Yeah, this should be good. Let’s start heading back.” They make their way away from the spawner, replacing the obsidian that protects it, and back down to the portal.

The portal is only a little ways out, so they make it back without much incident, careful not to drop, break, or lose the rods.

“Your parents let you do work like this?” Guy asks, and Dream glances over.

“What?”

“I mean, you just seem young.” Guy says. 

“We’re here to do a job, not become friends.” Dream says, and readjusts the mask that covers his face before going through the portal. The diamond pickaxe in his hands is heavy, and he changes hands once he’s back in the Overworld. Guy appears at his side a moment later, and they head to their destination.

Fortunately, Guy seems to have gotten the hint that Dream is not in any mood for small talk, and they move towards the admins’ part of the server in silence.

Once they get there, blaze rods are exchanged for money, tools are returned, and Guy and Dream take their leave.

“Good to work with you.” Guy says amicably, and Dream nods before turning off down the street, towards the market, hoping to find food and maybe new boots, as his are wearing out much faster than he would’ve liked.

As his recent streak of bad luck would have it, he doesn’t get that far. There’s yelling in the alleyway, at least four different voices. Dream is about to try and sneak by, get past without anyone seeing him, but he makes the mistake of glancing over for half a second, and he hears his name.

“Dream!” It’s the stupid kid from before. Sapnap. Now Dream really pays attention, because now the three or four guys that surround Sapnap are staring at him. 

“Fuck.” Dream says, as one of them takes hold of him, fully pulling him into the alleyway, into a dead end. 

He wants to thrash and get away, but he doesn’t fight, not yet. Better to let them underestimate him for the moment, and besides, if he can get Sapnap to help him, they can kill all three and split whatever things they have on them. From the looks of it, they have quite a bit, if their overconfidence and demeanor are anything to go by.

“I’ve got him.” Asshole #1 says. The other two nod, shit-eating grins on their faces as they turn back to Sapnap. 

“Come on kid, give us what you have. We saw you take those diamonds.” Asshole #2 says, and Dream holds back a curse. Really? The kid really had no sense of self-preservation. There were much easier things to steal, easier targets than people like this. 

He finally gets a good look at Sapnap when the kid turns away from Asshole #2. He’s crying, tear tracks obvious down his face. His left eye is swelling shut, the bruising already starting to show around the edges.

Okay. They can swing this. If Sapnap helps. Dream is a good fighter, years of practice against people larger than him making it so that he almost always wins. 

It’s gonna be harder than usual, but Dream’s confident that they’ll win. He makes eye contact with Sapnap, who nods.

He sends his elbow back into his captor. Asshole #1 startles, losing his grip, and Dream, smaller and now with an opening and a loosened grip, moves away with ease, aiming a well-placed kick and the man is briefly down.

“Sapnap!” Dream says, and Sapnap manages to punch Asshole #3 before Asshole #2 realizes what’s going on. Asshole #2 reaches for him, but Dream is there first, bringing the knife up and moving around with practiced efficiency, managing to get his wrist around his neck.

It isn’t perfect, but Dream digs in, and blood is spraying on the alleyway, getting all over the brick and Sapnap, who wipes his face in disgust. Asshole #2 hits the ground, and disappears, leaving the items in place on the ground. Sapnap looks like he wants to throw up, but instead punches Asshole #3 again, who spits onto the ground, blood congealing with spit. 

Kid can punch, Dream notes with a laugh, as he sends Asshole #1 back a few steps with a swipe of his knife. Asshole #3 is holding his face, as his nose bleeds profusely, and Sapnap doesn’t give him any time to recover before he’s on him again, and they go down to the ground, Sapnap on top, hitting him repeatedly as bones crack and crunch underneath him.

Dream is preoccupied with Asshole #1, as he swipes the knife in front of him, fast and well-practiced. The larger man brings out his own weapon, a sloppily-made sword, and Dream dodges it easily. He brings the knife forward, to dig into the middle of Asshole #1, who drops the sword in his surprise. Dream picks it up, and kills the man easily. 

He turns back to Sapnap, who is still on the ground, staring at empty space, where Asshole #3’s items lay. 

“Sapnap. Come on, help me sift through this.” Dream says, as he picks up the other two’s things, putting most of the useful items like food, potions, and weapons in his bag. The kid doesn’t move, staring at the ground. “Sapnap.” No response. “Sapnap!” 

“What?” The idiot finally seems to come back to Earth.

“Here.” Dream throws some food at him, in thanks for helping fight. Sapnap holds it in his hands, chewing on the piece of bread mechanically.

“Th-thank you.” 

Once Dream is satisfied with what he’s collected, he pulls Sapnap up off the floor.

“Listen to me. They’re gonna be back, probably with more weapons and people, so we really need to leave. You need to go home, wash all of- that off, and then lay low. Don’t show up in town for a couple days.” Dream instructs.

Sapnap doesn’t say anything. He’s preoccupied with getting some of the blood off of his face. It’s half-dried, coming off in red flakes. Dream takes a piece of splintered bone out of his hair. He throws it to the side quickly.

“Sapnap. Do you understand me?” Dream reiterates, holding his shoulders, which are shaking pretty badly. 

“I can’t- I can’t go home, they’ll get me-” Sapnap starts rambling, about people Dream doesn’t know and things that don’t matter.

“Why can’t you?” He asks.

“They’ll kill me, and the respawn won’t work, it will be off-” He starts again, and Dream sighs.

“Do you have anywhere you go? Where do you sleep?” Dream asks.

“Uh-” Sapnap doesn’t answer him.

“I did not just kill two people for them to come and kill you. Let’s go.” Dream takes Sapnap by the wrist and carefully leads them out of town, ignoring the odd looks from the others that manage to spot them. They’re more obvious than he would like, but there’s nothing he can do to fix that.

Once they get out into the woods, Dream leads them back to his base, blocking off the doorway and setting Sapnap on the floor. He places a water bucket in front of him, giving him a scrap of cloth to use as a rag.

“Clean up.” Dream says, and sets about getting the blood off of himself. He isn’t nearly as soaked as Sapnap, so it takes less time, but when he turns back to Sapnap, he sees the kid has most of the blood cleaned off. “Uh, okay, here.” Dream tosses him an extra shirt, and Sapnap peels off his blood soaked one.

“C-can I stay here?” Sapnap asks, and Dream looks at the tiny space around them, the one that barely fits him in it, much less two people. But he doesn’t want to just throw the kid out into the woods.

“For tonight.” Dream says, and Sapnap moves over off the floor. “Take the bed.” 

Sapnap moves onto the bed, out in less than five minutes. Dream has no idea how the kid has managed to even survive this long with anything, trusting people this soon after watching them kill two people.

Dream settles against the wall, holding the knife. He wipes the blood off of it with the scrap, and settles in for a long night. He won’t be able to sleep, not when there’s a stranger in his house.

He sorts through the items again, deeming what to keep on him and what to put in the box. 

He’ll deal with the kid in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> anyway sapnap and dream friends pog i love them
> 
> sapnap and dream: *brutally kill two people*  
> dream: ok lets go ur fine  
> sapnap: *having a crisis*
> 
> yes sapnap is sheltered and dream is not lmao but friends who commit murder together stick together
> 
> shoutout to my friend just_a_lizard for both summary help and aggressive support <33
> 
> have a good day/night, don't murder anyone ;) (unless it's me)


End file.
